Three Tuxedos

9. Declarations

"Elena, please tell me what's wrong." Caroline said as the two of them walked down the hallway at school on Tuesday morning. Elena had been quiet all day and she didn't appear to be listening whenever Caroline said something. She looked so down; Caroline was beginning to get very concerned.

"Nothing, Caroline. I'm fine." Elena said, her voice emotionless.

"You are most certainly not fine! What's happened? Is it Stefan and Damon?"

"What?" Elena said startled. "Oh, no it's not them."

They arrived at Elena's locker. She opened it, and placed her books inside. She got out her History books and started putting them in her bag.

Caroline shook her head. "No, Elena you have English next."

Elena paused, confused. "Oh, right." She got out the right books and Caroline watched her closely. What was upsetting her so much?

"You know you can talk to me about it, right?" Caroline said kindly.

"There is really nothing to talk about. It doesn't even matter. I've got to get to class."

Caroline watched as Elena walked off. She bumped into a freshman and they said "Hey!" but she didn't even notice. Elena was so upset, she was in her own little world.

Caroline's eyes widened. Elena was definitely not ok. But why didn't she want to talk about it?

And if it wasn't Stefan or Damon, then who was it?

"Caroline!" a voice called, pulling her from her thoughts. She saw Rebekah heading over to her.

"Rebekah, how's Prom coming?" Caroline asked.

Rebekah beamed. "Brilliantly. I picked these up this morning. I designed them." She handed Caroline something which she saw were the Prom invitations. They were in the shape of a Fairytale castle and the words were printed in a beautiful pink font. Caroline was impressed.

"Wow, they're great!" Caroline said handing them back to Rebekah.

"I know right! The Prom is this Saturday! Can you believe it?" Rebekah said.

"Yeah, it does seem to have snuck up on us."

Rebekah smiled. "Don't worry. Everything will be prepared and ready. I've sorted out the decorations too and we should be able to put them up in the gym on Friday."

"People might start to think you're the head of the Prom Committee at this rate."

Rebekah grimaced. "I don't have anything against you, Caroline. Actually, I hope we can be very good friends. But you're just going to have to accept that I'm a better event planner than you are."

And with that Rebekah turned and walked off down the hallway. As Rebekah passed some other students she said brightly, "Vote for me for Prom Queen." Caroline looked after her in disbelief.

Fuming, she strode off to her next class, very offended by Rebekah's words.

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Caroline arrived home that afternoon. She went into her room, placed her bag on her bed and began looking in it for her History homework.

"Caroline." a voice said. Caroline jumped, and looked up into the face of Klaus.

"I startled you again?" he said amused.

Caroline grinned. "At least I didn't scream this time."

"True." He moved closer to Caroline and pulled into a hug. "My Caroline is getting better at being less scared."

"I'm 'your' Caroline, am I?" she said as she rested her head on his shoulder.